1 November 2001: Following his recent visit with customers, partners and dealers throughout the Asia Pacific Region, Mike Burdett, President of Scala Business Solutions, believes that countries across the region will be quick to adopt collaborative commerce and will become true leaders of the global e-business economy.

“The Asia Pacific Region has always been a good market for Scala,” says Burdett. “The current positive attitude toward collaborative commerce makes this region of particular importance given that our latest collaborative ERP products are geared towards supporting automated transactions generated in portals and private exchanges.” He says that Asia's manufacturing community is extremely advanced, and countries such as Australia and New Zealand want to take advantage of e-business to not only increase their business but also to eliminate their geographic isolation and enable a greater sense of community, and therefore loyalty, amongst already established business contacts. “When you combine these two factors alone it is easy to believe the statistics that already 89% of online revenue is from the business-to-business sector in this region.”

Geert Jan Nieboer, Director of Finance Systems of DSM Engineering Plastics Asia Pacific, says, “Using Scala has greatly improved the way we run our operations, as well as the way we can steer and control the business. The system provides us with a solid platform for future growth in the region and we have plans to offer e-commerce functionality to our customers by linking the Scala system to a selected e-business market place.” The company uses Scala throughout subsidiaries in China, India, Japan and Singapore, and depends on Scala’s multi-language and multi-currency functionality, as well as the system’s ability to handle the various local legislative requirements in all countries. “We have managed to standardise all our procedures across the enterprise, and this rewards us with efficient and consistent management reporting from all subsidiaries.” Nieboer added that their in-house developed OLAP tool, based on Microsoft Access and Powerplay, has provided them with a very flexible and powerful management information system.

Burdett also highlighted the varying needs of companies based in Australia and Singapore. Those based in Australia have found it difficult to break out of the geographic confines, and the sheer size of the country means that tight control of the supply chain is essential. “To leave out a component from a delivery would be costly in Australia. While America has 250 million people across vast amounts of land, Australia has only about 19 million, and therefore less manufacturing plants and depots - the density of infrastructure simply does not exist. Orders have to travel huge distances, and if the supply chain works efficiently it will reduce costs.” In Singapore businesses compete against exceedingly high levels of service due to low labour costs, so they must streamline every aspect of their business in order to give the best service to all customers, partners, and suppliers to maintain loyalty.

Buena Vista Columbia TriStar Films is another customer of Scala in the region. Katina Yap, company accountant, says, “We chose Scala because it best fitted all of our requirements in terms of reporting, consolidation, and project costing. Since using the system we have seen obvious savings in terms of the man-hours we needed to manage the old system and the reporting tool is good for reviewing our status and implementing better controls over costs and business efficiency. We plan to stay with the Scala system and gain further benefits.”

Whilst on tour Burdett saw much evidence of government initiatives in South Korea and Malaysia, which are encouraging businesses to adopt ERP systems. These governments understand that in order to take part in the global market place their local businesses need to be competitive on every level, including business administration and management. “The desire to trade online has seriously stimulated the demand for competent ERP packages with international capabilities. Coupled with the successes we have had in the region such as again being ranked number one in the Chinese market according to IDC (see press release 21 June), Scala is well-placed to increase market share and move towards our goal of becoming the partner of choice for global enterprises for their subsidiaries, divisions and suppliers – wherever they are located.”

When visiting Japan, Burdett was reassured that Scala offers the most functionality specific to the Japanese market while running on Microsoft platforms (see press release 16 October). “We are strongly committed to continue supplying the Asia Pacific region with fully-localised collaborative ERP solutions and to take advantage of the fact that we can do this on cost-effective Microsoft platforms,” says Burdett.

# # #

Notes to Editors

About Scala Business Solutions
Scala Business Solutions creates collaborative ERP software – integrating Internet technology and traditional ERP functionality – to make global business simple. With Scala, global companies can fully integrate all their ERP systems anywhere in the world, whether in a subsidiary, division or headquarters, and extending to their partners and suppliers. Scala’s collaborative ERP software makes it possible for global companies to meet the requirements for advanced e-business as well as use a standard ERP product for managing traditional business processes. This enables them to gain measurable benefits from trading electronically, building a private exchange or global portal, or optimising the supply chain.

From offices in Europe, North America and the Far East, and through its network of partners and dealers, Scala delivers software and services that are available in over 30 languages in more than 100 countries.

1 November 2001: Following his recent visit with customers, partners and dealers throughout the Asia Pacific Region, Mike Burdett, President of Scala Business Solutions, believes that countries across the region will be quick to adopt collaborative commerce and will become true leaders of the global e-business economy.

“The Asia Pacific Region has always been a good market for Scala,” says Burdett. “The current positive attitude toward collaborative commerce makes this region of particular importance given that our latest collaborative ERP products are geared towards supporting automated transactions generated in portals and private exchanges.” He says that Asia's manufacturing community is extremely advanced, and countries such as Australia and New Zealand want to take advantage of e-business to not only increase their business but also to eliminate their geographic isolation and enable a greater sense of community, and therefore loyalty, amongst already established business contacts. “When you combine these two factors alone it is easy to believe the statistics that already 89% of online revenue is from the business-to-business sector in this region.”

Geert Jan Nieboer, Director of Finance Systems of DSM Engineering Plastics Asia Pacific, says, “Using Scala has greatly improved the way we run our operations, as well as the way we can steer and control the business. The system provides us with a solid platform for future growth in the region and we have plans to offer e-commerce functionality to our customers by linking the Scala system to a selected e-business market place.” The company uses Scala throughout subsidiaries in China, India, Japan and Singapore, and depends on Scala’s multi-language and multi-currency functionality, as well as the system’s ability to handle the various local legislative requirements in all countries. “We have managed to standardise all our procedures across the enterprise, and this rewards us with efficient and consistent management reporting from all subsidiaries.” Nieboer added that their in-house developed OLAP tool, based on Microsoft Access and Powerplay, has provided them with a very flexible and powerful management information system.

Burdett also highlighted the varying needs of companies based in Australia and Singapore. Those based in Australia have found it difficult to break out of the geographic confines, and the sheer size of the country means that tight control of the supply chain is essential. “To leave out a component from a delivery would be costly in Australia. While America has 250 million people across vast amounts of land, Australia has only about 19 million, and therefore less manufacturing plants and depots - the density of infrastructure simply does not exist. Orders have to travel huge distances, and if the supply chain works efficiently it will reduce costs.” In Singapore businesses compete against exceedingly high levels of service due to low labour costs, so they must streamline every aspect of their business in order to give the best service to all customers, partners, and suppliers to maintain loyalty.

Buena Vista Columbia TriStar Films is another customer of Scala in the region. Katina Yap, company accountant, says, “We chose Scala because it best fitted all of our requirements in terms of reporting, consolidation, and project costing. Since using the system we have seen obvious savings in terms of the man-hours we needed to manage the old system and the reporting tool is good for reviewing our status and implementing better controls over costs and business efficiency. We plan to stay with the Scala system and gain further benefits.”

Whilst on tour Burdett saw much evidence of government initiatives in South Korea and Malaysia, which are encouraging businesses to adopt ERP systems. These governments understand that in order to take part in the global market place their local businesses need to be competitive on every level, including business administration and management. “The desire to trade online has seriously stimulated the demand for competent ERP packages with international capabilities. Coupled with the successes we have had in the region such as again being ranked number one in the Chinese market according to IDC (see press release 21 June), Scala is well-placed to increase market share and move towards our goal of becoming the partner of choice for global enterprises for their subsidiaries, divisions and suppliers – wherever they are located.”

When visiting Japan, Burdett was reassured that Scala offers the most functionality specific to the Japanese market while running on Microsoft platforms (see press release 16 October). “We are strongly committed to continue supplying the Asia Pacific region with fully-localised collaborative ERP solutions and to take advantage of the fact that we can do this on cost-effective Microsoft platforms,” says Burdett.

# # #

Notes to Editors

About Scala Business Solutions
Scala Business Solutions creates collaborative ERP software – integrating Internet technology and traditional ERP functionality – to make global business simple. With Scala, global companies can fully integrate all their ERP systems anywhere in the world, whether in a subsidiary, division or headquarters, and extending to their partners and suppliers. Scala’s collaborative ERP software makes it possible for global companies to meet the requirements for advanced e-business as well as use a standard ERP product for managing traditional business processes. This enables them to gain measurable benefits from trading electronically, building a private exchange or global portal, or optimising the supply chain.

From offices in Europe, North America and the Far East, and through its network of partners and dealers, Scala delivers software and services that are available in over 30 languages in more than 100 countries.

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